Synopsis

Countryman is a fascinating exploration of identity, environment, and reconciliation.

Two friends attempt to trace the broken song lines of their forefathers triggering an unexpected chain of events.

A Croatian man heads into the Australian Outback armed only with a campervan, smartphone and a drone. He is on a mission to follow his dad’s footsteps from Sydney to Cairns in the late 1950s and to find the descendants of settlers from his tiny home island of Korčula (a Croatian island in the Adriatic Sea).

Events take an unexpected turn when he meets Joseph, a Warumungu artist, in desert country (Tenant Creek) who believes that his father is also European. His father left the family when Joseph was a child.

Through their growing friendship they discover the living history of each other’s First Nations and Mediterranean ancestry re-igniting connections along the way.